East Tennessee State vs The Citadel 3/4/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Citadel Bulldogs and the East Tennessee State Buccaneers meet in college basketball action from the Harrah’s Cherokee Center-Asheville on Friday.

The Citadel Bulldogs will come into the conference tournament as the #9 seed, finishing with a 12-17 overall record, including a 6-12 conference record. Hayden Brown leads the Bulldogs in scoring and rebounding with 18.5 PPG and 9.4 RPG while Jason Roche has 13.3 PPG with 4 RPG and Tyler Moffe has 10.7 PPG with a team-high 4 APG to lead the Citadel in assists this year and to cap off the scoring in double figures for the Citadel this season. Stephen Clark also has 9.8 PPG with 6 RPG this season. As a team, the Citadel is averaging 76.9 PPG on 44.5% shooting from the field, 35.4% from three and 67.3% from the foul line while allowing 77.1 PPG on 43.1% shooting from the field and 33.2% from three this season.

The East Tennessee State Buccaneers will enter as the #8 seed after ending the year 15-16 including a 7-11 mark in SoCon play this year. Jordan King leads the Buccaneers in scoring with 14.7 PPG while Ledarrius Brewer has 14.6 PPG with 5.3 RPG. David Sloan has 12.5 PPG with a team-high 5.1 APG to lead the Bucs in assists and Ty Brewer has 10.6 PPG with a team-high 6.6 RPG to lead the Buccaneers on the glass and to make up the group of double-digit scorers for East Tennessee State up to this point in the season. As a team, East Tennessee State is averaging 71.9 PPG on 44.5% shooting from the field, 35.6% from three and 72.9% from the foul line while allowing 72.6 PPG on 44.9% shooting from the field and 33.9% from three this season.

The Citadel is 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games against a team with a losing record and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games following a loss while the under is 6-0 in their last 6 games overall. East Tennessee State is 6-1 ATS in their last 7 neutral site games and 1-7 ATS in their last 8 games following a win while the under is 7-2 in their last 9 neutral site games.

I get why ETSU is favored here as they just beat the Citadel a couple of weeks ago, and won by double-digits so they’re only being asked to lay a couple more points in this one. However, as bad as the Citadel’s defense has been, the offense has the skill to keep the team in these games and I think this one’s going to be tight. Give me the points here.